Fact Sheet 6

Fact Sheet:6

Effective partnership working

Agencies and NDPBs, like other public sector organisations, need to explore the possibilities of delivering services and functions in partnership with others, including bodies from the private and voluntary sectors. Partnership can increase the effectiveness of service delivery and help those Agencies and NDPBs involved improve their performance and the achievement of the wider outcomes to which they seek to contribute. Partnerships are often also a key factor in taking an innovative approach to the delivery of services and functions. Many Agencies and NDPBs have already begun to do this.

2. Partnership arrangements need to be well thought through if they are to achieve their potential and creating such links can present risks. But if assessed and managed properly, such risks should not in themselves discourage Agencies and NDPBs from working with others to gain the benefits which partnership can bring.

3. This Fact Sheet sets out some questions which are intended to help the review identify where there is scope for new or greater partnership working with others. It draws on guidance ¹ issued by the Audit Commission on how to work effectively in partnership. Although this guidance is targeted specifically at organisations in the local government and health sectors, many of the issues it raises are relevant to central government.

4. In considering partnership working, the role of information and communications technology should be recognised in enhancing the quality of service delivery. This will apply to links which an Agency or NDPB already has with other organisations; and to the possibility of developing new links with other organisations inside and outside the public sector.

Deciding to go into partnership

	Does the Agency or NDPB have clear and sound reasons for being involved in its current partnership(s)?
	Where new partnerships must be set up to meet Government objectives at the national level, what groundwork is being done locally to maximise their chances of success?
	Are changes in behaviour or in decision-making processes needed to avoid setting up partnerships with only limited chances of success?

Getting started

	Have all the partnerships in which the Agency or NDPB is involved been reviewed to evaluate whether the form of partnership is appropriate to its functions and objectives?
	Do all the partnerships have an appropriately structured board or decision-making forum?
	When setting up a new partnership, how are prospective partners identified?

Operating efficiently and effectively

	Do partners have mutually compatible aims and share the same main objectives for the partnership?
	Are the partnership’s objectives consistent with those of the partnership organisations?
	If an outsider watched a partnership operate, would he/she be able to identify the partnership’s main objectives?
	Do the partners know where the boundaries between the activities of the partnership and of their own organisation lie?
	Do the members of any partnership steering groups have sufficient authority to commit their organisations to decisions?
	Are partnerships prepared to delegate responsibility for parts of their work to particular partners?
	Do large partnerships have an executive group that all the partners trust to make decisions on their behalf?
	Are project-planning techniques used to ensure that the separate agreement of all partners to a course of action is achieved in good time, when necessary?
	Do the partnership’s decisions get implemented effectively?
	Are partnership staff selected for their technical competence and for their ability to operate both inside and outside a conventional public sector framework?
	What actions are taken to build and maintain trust between partners?
	If members have dropped out of a partnership, what lessons have been learnt about how to maintain involvement in the future?

Reviewing success

	Does each partnership have a shared understanding of the outcomes that it expects to achieve or contribute to, both in the short and long term?
	What means have been identified for measuring the partnership’s progress towards expected outputs and outcomes and the health of the partnership itself?
	Has the partnership identified its own performance indicators and set jointly agreed targets for these?²
	Are the costs of the partnership known, including indirect and opportunity costs?
	Are these costs actively monitored and weighed against the benefits that the partnership delivers?
	What steps have been taken to make sure that the partnerships are accountable to the individual partners, external stakeholders, service users and the public at large?
	Are some or all of the partnership’s meetings open to the public?
	Is information about the partnership’s spending, activities and results available to the public?
	Does the partnership review its corporate governance arrangements?
	Has the partnership considered when its work is likely to be complete, and how
	it will end/handover its work when this point is reached?

Footnotes

1 Audit Commission, A fruitful partnership: effective partnership working, 1998, ISBN 186240 075 X. �15 All priced Commission reports can be ordered on 0800 50 20 30

2 The Cabinet Office is currently running the Measurement and Performance Project (MAPP) which is aiming to develop guidance for local partnerships in setting their own targets in support of joint working. Further information on MAPP is available on the Internet at http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/eeg/1999/mapp.htm